Aerial Experiment Association

AEA member John Alexander Douglas McCurdy at the controls of the AEA Silver Dart during an aviation 'meet' near Toronto, Canada, c. August 1911.

The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the tutelage of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.^[1] According to Bell, it was a "co-operative scientific association, not for gain but for the love of the art and doing what we can to help one another."^[2]

Origins

The AEA came into being when John Alexander Douglas McCurdy and his friend Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin, two recent engineering graduates of the University of Toronto, decided to spend the summer in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. McCurdy had grown up there, and his father was the personal secretary of Dr. Bell. He had grown up close to the Bell family and was well received in their home. One day, as the three sat with Dr. Bell discussing the problems of aviation, Mabel Bell, Alexander's wife, suggested they create a formal research group to exploit their collective ideas. Being independently wealthy, she provided a total of US$35,000 (approximately $910,000 in current dollars^[3]) to finance the Association, with $20,000 made available immediately by the sale of property.^[4][5][6]

Glenn H. Curtiss, the American motorcycle designer and manufacturer and recognized expert on gasoline engines, was recruited as a member of the association. Curtiss had visited the Wright Cycle Company to discuss aeronautical engineering with Wilbur and Orville Wright, and wrote offering them use of a 50 hp engine, but Wilbur cordially declined, assuring him that a motor of their own development met their power needs, unaware that the AEA was about to become a serious competitor in powered flight. Bell wrote to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to have an interested young officer who had volunteered his help, US Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, officially detailed to Baddeck. Selfridge was detailed to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps on 3 August 1907, two days after its formation, and sent to Nova Scotia. A year later he became the first person killed in an airplane accident while flying with one of the Wright Brothers on 17 September 1908.

First experiments

In 1898, Bell experimented with tetrahedral box kites and wings constructed of multiple compound tetrahedral kites covered in maroon silk.^{[N 1]} The tetrahedral wings were named Cygnet I, II and III, and were flown both unmanned and manned (Cygnet I crashed during a flight carrying Selfridge) in the period from 1907–1912. Some of Bell's kites are on display at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.^[8]

Later designs

The AEA's work progressed to heavier-than-air machines, applying their knowledge of kites to gliders. The AEA collaboration led to very public success. Casey Baldwin became the first Canadian and first British subject pilot on 12 March 1908 flight of Red Wing.^{[2] [N 2]}

Its successor, White Wing was the first plane to have Bell's ailerons. One of their aircraft, the June Bug, won the Scientific American Trophy by making the first official one kilometer flight in North America, although, the Wrights had already accomplished this in 1904. Their fourth flying machine, the Silver Dart, constructed in 1908, made the first controlled powered flight in Canada on 23 February 1909 when it was flown off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck by McCurdy, who had been one of its designers.^[10]

On 10 March 1909, McCurdy set a record when he flew the Silver Dart on a circular course over a distance of more than 32 km (20 mi), a feat that the Wrights had already accomplished in 1905. The Association made the first passenger flight in Canada on 2 August, also in the Silver Dart. Much development also took place in Hammondsport, New York where experimentation was done on development on Curtiss' pioneering seaplane experiments, before Henri Fabre in France successfully flew the first powered seaplane in history, the Fabre Hydravion, in March 1910. The AEA organization disbanded on 31 March 1909.^[11]

Aircraft designed and constructed

• Aerodrome 1 Red Wing (1908) Single-seat single-engine biplane
• Aerodrome 2 White Wing (1908) Single-seat single-engine biplane
• Aerodrome 3 June Bug (1908) Single-seat single-engine biplane
• Aerodrome 4 Silver Dart (1909) Single-engine biplane
• Aerodrome 5 Cygnet (1912) Single-engine single-seat aircraft with unorthodox wing
• Bell Oionus I, a tetrahedral triplane (1910) ^{[N 3]} after the AEA had disbanded, constructed at Baddeck Kite House, Nova Scotia, and Bell's final aviation pursuit.

See also

• 1911 in aviation

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links

• A Most Noble Experiment
• The Aerial Experiment Association